Sunday’s headlines: Are M’s really a team in trouble?

Sometimes it’s good to hear an outside perspective on your local team. Or not, depending on whether you want sour milk on your Mariners’ cornflakes this morning.

Phil Rogers, a long-time national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, checks in with a column saying the Mariners look like a team in trouble after earning much of the pre-spring praise for their offseason moves.

Mariners starter Ian Snell went six innings Saturday, giving up three runs in his second-to-last tuneup of the spring. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

But not all the news is quite so dreary. Ian Snell pitched well on Saturday in a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers, Jose Lopez is coming along at third base, Rob Johnson is healing up and, well, it is all just spring training at this point.

The M’s are at it again today, facing old friend Lou Piniella and his Cubs at 1:05 p.m. in a game you can catch on FSN-TV or KIRO-710/AM. Ryan Rowland-Smith will be on the mound but, no, Milton Bradley is not in the lineup against his old team.

Meanwhile, here’s the latest:

Rogers provides the morning gloom for M’s fans with his piece titled “Mariners look like team in trouble.” The Chicago columnist doesn’t like the addition of Bradley, the injury problems with Cliff Lee and the lack of run producers in Seattle’s lineup.

Larry LaRue of the News Tribune offers a more positive wrapup of Saturday’s events, noting Snell threw well despite not getting much offensive support, Kenokoa Texeira continued his excellent spring after fighting off a stomach flu and Ken Griffey Jr. told the tale of his last walk-off home run before Friday’s slam.

Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald reports that catcher Rob Johnson plans to play the whole game today against the Cubs for the first time, having showed he could go back-to-back outings with five-inning stints Thursday and Friday as the M’s bring him back slowly from his hip surgeries.